New people are welcome as always! Everyone is friendly and helpful and we have lots of fun! :)

NOTE: here's the easy to remember URL to keep up to date with our events: http://www.mini-zracer.com/annarbor

Please bring $10 to cover the cost of the race night (one fee for the whole night of practice and racing - a great value!).
Reminder: You can now pay your entry fees online (http://shop.tinyrc.com/product.php?productid=19617&cat=485&page=1).

The event starts at 7pm and is in Ypsilanti, MI (just southeast of Ann Arbor). The address is:
3140 Carpenter, Ypsilanti, MI 48197

Reminder that Dojo 4 is now 3140 Carpenter - park around the back of the building and use the back door to since the storefront section is closed when we start.

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Get your orders into http://Shop.TinyRC.com early and you can choose to pick it up at the GTG this Friday to save on shipping costs.

Post here to let us know what time you plan to come and what time you need to leave.
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We're starting our new Ann Arbor Mini-ZRacer.com season this Saturday! This season will run from February to June. See the image below as an example of the Track Layout we will be running.

We are planning on having 3 Mini-Z classes:

Stock (including both 2WD and AWD)
Formula 1
Modified

By last count we had everyone wanting to do Stock, about 4 of us with Formula 1s, and nobody ready yet with their Modified cars. So for sure we will be doing Stock and Formula 1, but may be delay starting Modified depending on demand :D

NOTE: We will be doing qualifying based on fastest lap instead of doing our standard qualifying heats.

See you all Saturday, this should be a blast! Bring a friend, and maybe we'll see some old faces too!

Note that David will be posting the rules for this new Ann Arbor Mini-ZRacer.com Season pretty soon.

The rules for each race will be roughly based on PN Mini-Z Event rules like the ones found here: MiniZ World Cup Regional Rules 2009 (http://www.minizworldcup.com/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,35/).

I am pretty sure of one thing: if you car was legal for HFAY, then it will be legal for our Stock class (assuming we allow all Pan and Atomic VDS bodies in our Stock class which I think PN typically doesn't).

Some clarifications that I will be looking for related to our Stock class:

Are lexan wings legal?
Which "Stock" Motors are legal?

Specific Stock Motors that I want to know if they are legal for our Stock class:

Looking at this Post on Motor comparisons (http://mini-zracer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27939), I'm currently guessing that all of the above except the "Atomic Stock" should be allowed for our Stock class.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

-hobbycar

hobbycar

2010.02.05, 10:35 PM

So rules that still need to be stated (and I think David will be posting on this soon):

Stock minimum weight limit - same limit (e.g. 175g) for 2WD and AWD or different (e.g. 175g for 2WD and 190g for AWD)
How are we doing points for each race?
How many drops are we going to have?

-hobbycar

Jerrymor

2010.02.05, 10:50 PM

Looking at this Post on Motor comparisons (http://mini-zracer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27939), I'm currently guessing that all of the above except the "Atomic Stock" should be allowed for our Stock class.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

-hobbycar

My opinion is that a stock class should only have one motor. Since we all have the PN70 turn HFAY motor it gets my vote.
The modified class can run the other motors.

Jerry

will3kgt

2010.02.06, 05:18 PM

See you guys tonight.

mini-z

2010.02.06, 05:45 PM

Note that David will be posting the rules for this new Ann Arbor Mini-ZRacer.com Season pretty soon.

Kyosho X-Speed and stock, or any PN 70T stock motor is legal. So the Atomic motors are not legal for sure. I don't have the specs for the Speedy motors handy, how many turns are they? The S6 and S8 HFAY motors are also legal since they are PN 70T; S4 on the other hand is not.

RE Lexan wings, I don't see this defined in the Rules, so my initial ruling would be to allow them for Mod but not Stock, since the intention with Stock class is preserve the realistic look of the bodies. We can discuss further before the first race if anyone has an argument against this. Thanks! :):cool:

mini-z

2010.02.06, 05:47 PM

See you guys tonight.

OK, get ready for a weird night - Will has already paid his race fees online before 5:30pm!?!? :eek::eek::eek::D:D:D

mini-z

2010.02.06, 05:53 PM

So rules that still need to be stated (and I think David will be posting on this soon):

Stock minimum weight limit - same limit (e.g. 175g) for 2WD and AWD or different (e.g. 175g for 2WD and 190g for AWD)
How are we doing points for each race?
How many drops are we going to have?

-hobbycar

Since our Stock class is mixed, I set it at 175g for both 2WD and AWD. Unless this results in AWD having an unfair advantage (i.e. the 15g is required as a penalty), I think this seems fair.

Points will be (old :rolleyes:) F1-style: 10/8/6/5/4/3/2/1. The intention here is to prevent the situation we saw before where the biggest factor was attendance, and a few bad race incidents prevented any chance of being a contender in the championship. This also means that not everyone will get points. I'm open to input as long as we have everything ironed out by the time of the first race.

We're going to have 10 Stock races with 2 drops. Mod will only have 8 races since it starts a month later, and I'm open to input on number of drops - 2 seems excessive? I'm not certain whether points will start tonight for F1 or at the same time as Mod - I'm guessing that the amount of teching and setup tonight will result in everyone wanting to hold off points until next month. :)

Keep the questions coming - I'm sure there are any number of things that we've yet to figure out - the sooner we make rulings on them the better of course! :)

mini-z

2010.02.06, 06:13 PM

A few last important notes:

Your $10 entry fee gets you unlimited classes! We're also going to start collecting it before qualifying, i.e. you need to make sure you've paid in order for your laps to count! :eek:;)
Due to the fact that we're down to only 3 transponders and two of those are on their last legs, we need to start charging for transponder rental (we're out over $200 on these already), which will be $3/night. And we need to start doing the car keys thing as well so that people don't keep walking off with them. :confused::)
Please bring all of your crystals so that between 2.4 and the 12 27MHz frequencies, we can do single mains per class. These are so fun on the big layout! I used to have all 6 US frequencies, but, many of them are "missing", so don't count on me having crystals on the required frequency available to borrow. If nec. we can just get a set of all 6 and do rentals like with transponders (or everyone can step up and get 2.4 already! :p). :)

hobbycar

2010.02.07, 10:56 PM

For posterity, here is the track we ran (very similar to the one we ran the previous time).